Worrying about foreign animal diseases like the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can keep veterinarians and regulators up at night. The threat posed to animal agriculture if that disease reared its ugly head can’t be overestimated. For Wisconsin’s State Veterinarian, Dr. Paul McGraw, FMD has been at the top of his list for some time.

His Division of Animal Health staff has been stretched thin investigating swine that have vesicles which look like they could be caused by FMD – a disease that can affect all animals with cloven hooves. These regulators have sampled 1,758 pigs and conducted 701 investigations on pigs that had these symptoms. Happily, none were positive for FMD.